(9 Jan 2019) LEADIN
The ancient skills of the Bosnian coppersmith have been passed from father to son for generations. Now, for the first time, a woman has become an expert in the craft.
STORYLINE
For centuries, coppersmith workshops have been at the heart of Sarajevo's old Ottoman district, Bascarsija.
Now this most traditional of crafts is modernising, as a woman joins the ranks of the city's tradespeople.
Nermina Alic inherited a small workshop and was initiated into the trade by Sarajevo's oldest living coppersmith - her 81-year-old father, Hadzan.
By handing over the reins of the family workshop to his female child, Hadzan, who sometimes still helps her in her work, broke the unwritten rules of the traditionally male-dominated trade.
"My family did not have other options as I am the only child…but it is the fact that when I was born and while I was growing up, my father could not have imagined that I would take over from him, because women are traditionally non-existent in the coppersmith trade," Nermina explains.
In the past, women were occasionally allowed to decorate the copperware, but the hand-beating of copper sheets, welding them into household dishes and lining those dishes with tin were off-limits.
However, Alic "practically grew up" in her father's workshop and was drawn to all different stages of copper work long before she was aware of gender stereotypes.
"I knew that I could do this job before I was aware of the traditional division between male and female crafts, that is between male and female jobs in general," she says.
Alic studied art and is now using the knowledge and skills gained during her years at university to expand the range of her hand-crafted products.
Some of the new products she has introduced include candle holders shaped as traditional coffee pots and lidded bowls turned into decorative lamps.
Alic insists her male colleagues have readily embraced her as their equal.
"The fact that I am a woman has never been an obstacle or a problem. People who know how to do a job well respect others who are also good at that job, regardless of their gender," she says.
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